Apparatus for treating with liquid a material in granular, threaded or fibrous form



Nov. 8, 1960 F. w. J. KARRER 2,959,047

APPARATUS FOR TREATING WITH LIQUID A MATERIAL IN GRANULAR, THREADED OR FIBROUS FORM Original Filed June 12, 1956 2/ I 4 F M /4 6 l a l INVENTOR. FRIEDRICH W. J. KARRER hi5 ATTORNEYS.

Friedrich W. J. Karrer, Strandvagen 37, Stockholm, Sweden Ser. No. 590,959.

Original application June 12, 1956,

19, 1957, Ser. No.

Divided and this application Sept. 690,171

4 Claims. (Cl. 68184) The present invention relates to apparatus for treating with liquid a material in granular, threaded or fibrous form and, particularly, the invention relates to apparatus for bleaching and dyeing textiles and yarn.

This is a division of application Serial No. 590,959, filed June 12, 1956.

According to a well known method, textiles for instance in form of yarn are bleached or dyed by circulating a treatment liquid constituting the bleaching or dyeing bath through the textile material to be treated by means of a pump. Upon completion of the bleaching and dyeing operation respectively the textile material is rinsed by circulating water through the material. This conventional method has the disadvantage that the bleaching and dyeing operations respectively require a considerable quantity of bleaching and dyeing liquid most of which cannot be recovered for repeated use. As a result, the conventional bleaching and dyeing process is comparatively expensive. Furthermore, bleaching and dyeing operations require nearly always comparatively high temperatures which further increase the expenses of the operations according to the conventional method in view of the large quantity of liquid to be heated. Finally, the rinsing operation is tedious, time consuming and frequently incomplete with the conventional method by reason of the considerable quantities of the bleaching and dyeing agents which are retained by the textile material and must be washed out by the rinsing fluid. Cotton yarn retains about 200% of the dry weight of the material.

Accordingly, one object of the present invention is to provide a novel and improved apparatus which permits a considerable reduction of the required quantity of treatment liquid and hence also the quantities of the required chemicals. This has the advantage that the entire treatment can be completed faster and less expensively than is hitherto possible. Furthermore, the rinsing operation can be completed more rapidly and more efficiently since the quantity of chemicals retained by the material is smaller than with the conventional apparatus. Also, a major portion of the treatment liquid can be recovered and reused for other bleaching and dyeing operations.

Another object of the invention is to provide a novel and improved apparatus for treating material of the general type, above referred to, which eliminates the necessity of heating the treatment liquid by externally produced heat. This has the advantage that the cost of producing the heat required for the treatment operation is much lower than with the conventional apparatus in which a large quantity of liquid must be heated by an external source of heat.

According to a method practiced with an apparatus embodying the present invention, the aforementioned objects and other objects, features and advantages of the invention are attained by placing the material to be treated in a circulation system, feeding a quantity of treatment liquid into the circulation system, creating a 2,959,047 Patented Nov. 8, 1960 vacuum within the system (and subsequently lifting the vacuum) for causing the treatment liquid to be sucked into and between the material to be treated, the quantity of treatment liquid fed to the circulation system being so as just to cover the material after completion of the said sucking-in operation, then removing from the circulation system all treatment liquid in excess of the quantity retained by the material and required for the treatment thereof, subsequently circulating a flow of a gaseous fluid through said system and the material therein for nebulizing the treatment liquid retained by the material thereby removing the retained treatment liquid from the flow of fluid. The flow of fluid laden with liquid droplets is preferably subjected to a liquid separating operation and thereupon recycled through the circulation system.

Generally, the present invention is embodied in an apparatus comprising a receptacle or vat for the material to be treated, a compressor and a liquid separator joined by an appropriate piping in a circulation system. The apparatus further comprises a conduit communicating with the upper portion of the receptacle and with a means for producing a vacuum, a second conduit also communicating with the upper portion of the receptacle and with the ambient atmosphere, and a third conduit communicating with the lower portion of the receptacle for the admission and discharge of treatment liquid. Each of the three conduits includes a suitable valve means for the purpose of independently opening and closing the respective conduit.

To prevent excessive wear and tear of the compressor by solid particles, such as dye particles, which may be included in the liquid droplets carried by the air or gas current passing through the compressor during the treatment of the material, the liquid discharge duct of the separator is preferably connected by a pipe line including a pump with the piping section connecting the pressure side of the compressor with the upper portion of the receptacle. As a result, the compressor is fed with air or gas substantially liberated of liquid droplets. The treatment liquid collected in the separator is then pumped through the aforementioned pipe line and fed into the circulation system through distribution nozzles finely distributing the pumped liquid.

As previously mentioned, the apparatus according to the invention is useful for a treatment with liquid of various materials in granular, threaded or fibrousforrn. One of the now preferred fields of application of the invention is the bleaching and dyeing of various kinds of textiles such as textile fibers, cellulose and paper. Under certain conditions, fiber glass, asbestos and other materials can also be treated independently whether the mate rial consists of loose fibers or of fabrics. The invention has been found to be specifically useful for the treatment of yarn wound upon spools.

In addition to the previously mentioned advantages, the invention also affords the advantage that the bleaching, dyeing and rinsing operations to which the textiles are subjected and also the drying of the textiles in accordance with the method disclosed in United States Patent 2,567,940 can be carried out in one and the same installation, the textile material remaining in the respective receptacle or vat of the installation during the entire process. The invention will now be more fully described in connection with the single figure of the drawing showing an exemplification of an apparatus according to the invention.

The apparatus as shown in the drawing comprises a preferably cylindrical receptacle or vat 1 for the material to be treated. The receptacle is closed at its upper open end by a removable cover 2 and is supported on a frame 3. The bottom end of. the receptacle is provided with a'duct 4 whichis'connected through a control valve 5 with one end of a pipe 6 the other end of which leads to the inlet side of a liquid separator 7. Liquid collected in this separator is discharged through a"disc'ha'rgepipe'8; "The'outlet side of the separator 7 is connected to'the suction side of a compressor 9 the pressure side of which communicates through a pipe 10, a control valve 11 and a duct 12 with the upper portion of receptacle 1. The aforementioned duct 4 further communicates wi'th'a pipe 14 including a control valve 13. This pipe serves for the admission and discharge of treatment liquid. Cover 2 of the receptacle is provided with a pipe 15 which through'a control valve 16 communicates with the ambient atmosphere. A pipe 18 including a control valve'17 is branched otf from pipe 15 -before the-control valve 16 included in pipe 15'. This branch pipe18 should be visualized as leading to a vacuum pump or anyother suitable means for producing a vacuum. The discharge pipe 8 of separator 7 communicates with pipe through a pipe 21 and a pump 19. The end of pipe 21 issuing in pipe 10 is provided with nozzles 20 or similar distribution means by "which liquid collected in separator 7 and pumped by pump 19 is sprayed or injected into pipe 10 in form of droplets or a mist.

The operation of the apparatus just described will now beexplai-ned in connection with an actually carried out bleaching operation. I

The material to be bleached consisted of eight dry spools containing cotton yarn having a total weight of 2430 grams. The bleaching liquid consisted of a mixture-of 30 liters of water and 1.5 liters of 30% hydrogen peroxide to which were added 5 grams of blueing dissolved in about 0.5 liter of warm water so that the total volume of treatment liquid'was about 31.75 liters.

The eight cotton yarn spools 22 (to simplify the drawing four spools 22 only are shown) supported on a carrier 23 were insertedin receptacle 1 and the valves 5, 11 and 16 were closed. Then valves 13 and 17 were opened and receptacle 1 was evacuated through pipe 18 until the pressure was reduced to 0.5 atm. As a result, bleaching liquid was sucked through pipe 14 into the receptacle and'through the spools. Subsequently, the connection between the receptacle and the source of the vacuum 17a was interrupted by closing valve 17 and valve 16 was openedfor connecting the receptacle with the ambient air through pipe 15. As a result of the rapid change of pressure in the receptacle the bleaching liquid contained therein was subjected to an impact of pressure forcing the same into the eight spools so that the bleaching liquid fully penetrated these spools. Thereupon the remaining bleaching liquid was discharged through pipe 14. This preliminary bleaching operation which consumed about two minutes was repeated twice without heating of the bleaching liquid. Twenty-three liters of un-used bleaching liquid were tapped off through pipe '14-and then the weight of the eight spools was ascertained. It Was found that the spools had now a weight of 7705 grams, that is, 5.275 liters of bleaching liquid were absorbed and retained by the spools. It was further found that 3.525 liters of treatment liquid were lost by leakage of the installation used for the test. Valves 13, 16 and 17 were now closed and valves 5 andll opened. Then compressor 9 Was started whereby the air in the system circulated in'a closed cycle through receptacle 1, the yarn spools therein, duct 4, pipe 6, separator 7, compressor 9, pipe 10 and duct 12. The discharge pipe 8 of separator '7 was kept closed since the installation used for the test was not equipped with the connection pipe 21. However, it will be apparent from the previous description that with the installation as shown on the drawing the discharge pipe 8 would be open during this stage of the operation for thepurpose of recycling treatment liquid collected in the separator.

The circulating air current carried with it the treatment liquid retained by the eight yarn spools in finely distributed form, that is, in form of droplets and after five minutes 2.750 liters of bleaching liquid were collected in the separator and could be discharged from the same. Consequently, 2.525 liters of bleaching liquid were available for this bleaching operation which was continued for 35 minutes. The bleaching operation was conducted with an initial temperature of 50 C. and an initial pressure of 1.2 atm. at the pressure side of compressor 9 and an initial temperature of 23 C. and an initial vacuum of 10 centimeters on the suction side of the compressor. The end temperature and the end pressure were 90.4 C. and 1.2 atm. respectively on the pressure side of the compressor and 60 C. and a vacuum of 10 centimeters respectively on the suction side of the compressor. As will now be apparent, the heat required for the treatment operation is supplied by the heat produced by the compressor during the compression work thereof necessary for the circulation of'the air current.

After the completion of the bleaching operation the weight of the eight spools was again ascertained'and it was found that they had a weight of 3755 grams, that is, they were not quite dry but still contained 1.325 liters of bleaching liquid. An additional 0.850 liter of bleaching liquid was notiremoved from separator '7 which is indicative of an additional loss of 0.350 liter of bleaching liquid by leakage from the installation used for the test.

The yarn was completely white which shows that with an apparatus according to the invention the bleaching operation proper can 'be completed in about 40 minutes whereas the methods as hitherto known at least two to three hours are necessary for the completion of the same bleaching operation.

What is claimed, is:

1. An apparatus for treating a material in granular, threaded and fibrous form with treatment liquid, the said apparatus comprising an air-tight receptacle for the material to be treated, air compressor means, liquid separating means having an inlet, an outlet and a discharge duct for collected liquid, first conduit means communicating with the upper portion of the receptacle for connecting the receptacle to a vacuum producing means, second conduit means communicating with the' upper portion of the receptacle and the ambient atmosphere, a third conduit means communicating with the lower portion of the receptacle for admitting treatment liquid to and discharging the same from the"circulationsystem, control valve means included in each one of the said conduit means 'for independently opening and closing the conduit means by operating the respective valve means an upper section of piping connecting the pressure side of the compressor means to the upper portion of the receptacle and the suction side with the outlet of the liquid separating means and a lower section of piping connecting the inlet of the separating means with the lower portion of the receptacle whereby the cornpressor means and the liquid separating means are connected in a closed circulation system for circulating air through the receptacle and'material therein and removing treatment liquid in droplet form from the air circulating through the liquid separating "means, control valve means in each of the aforesaid-upper and lower sections of piping for independently opening and closing said piping sections, fourth conduit means connecting said upper section of piping with the liquid discharge duct of the separating means, and pump means in said fourth conduit means for pumping the collectedliquid from the separating means to said upper section of piping.

'2. An'apparatusfor treating a-material with -a-treatrnent-liquid, the apparatus comprising an air tight-receptacle-for the --material to be treated, "a'compressor means, a liquid separating means, piping means connecting the receptacle to the compressor means and the compressor means to the liquid separating means and the liquid separating means back to the receptacle for circulating air through the receptacle and material therein and for removing treatment liquid from the air, the liquid separating means being connected adjacent the lower portion of the receptacle, the compressor means being connected adjacent the upper portion of the receptacle, means for alternately applying a vacuum to the receptacle and opening the receptacle to pressure substantially equal to atmosphere, means to re-combine the liquid separated from the air by the separating means with the air on the pressure side of the compressor means.

3. An apparatus for treating a material with a treatment liquid, the apparatus comprising an air-tight receptacle for the material to be treated, an air compressor means, a liquid separating means, piping means interconnecting the receptacle, the compressor means and the liquid separating means for circulating air through the receptacle and material therein and for removing treatment liquid from the air circulating through the liquid separating means, the liquid separating means being connected adjacent the lower portion of the receptacle, the compressor means being connected adjacent the upper portion of the receptacle, a vacuum means in communication with the upper portion of the air-tight receptacle, valve means associated with the vacuum means for alternately applying the vacuum to the receptacle and breaking the vacuum, drain means for removing excess treatment liquid from the receptacle, means to recombine the liquid separated from the air by the separating means with the air on the pressure side of the compressor means.

4. An apparatus for treating a material with a treatment liquid, the said apparatus comprising an air-tight receptacle for the material to be treated, an air compressor means, a liquid separating means, means for providing a downward flow of air in the receptacle and for removing treatment liquid from the air comprising piping means connecting the lower portion of the receptacle to the liquid separating means, the liquid separating means to the compressor means, and the compressor means back to the upper portion of the receptacle, a vacuum producing means in communication with the receptacle and valve means to permit the treatment liquid to be inserted within the receptacle and drained therefrom.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,705,212 Schwabe Mar. 12, 1929 1,776,190 Mishaw Sept. 16, 1930 2,174,178 Nichols Sept. 26, 1939 2,567,940 Karrer Sept. 18, 1951 FOREIGN PATENTS 21,348 Australia Sept. 9, 1935 459-198 eat r t in Ju y 12 1936 

